And Some Still Think of Google As Just a Search Engine Company…

Most people know Google as a search engine company. As such, it is a gargantuan content finder, aggregator, and routing machine. Some of that content is of their own making or repackaging (Google News and Blog). Some of it is a mashup (Google Maps, Google Earth). But most of the initial success of Google can be attributed to finding and distributing the relevant content of others to an interested, inquiring audience (Google, Google Blog Search, Google Book Search, etc.). However, according to a Wired interview with Eric Schmidt, their CEO, Google is first and foremost an advertising operating system (see more on John Battelle’s post).

Schmidt’s comments help provide an insight into the Google grand plan. Most everything they are doing is meant to intersect appropriate content with advertising utility and to ensure that the Google “operating system” is the best place on the planet to accomplish this task at numerous places along the value chain. One of the things Google has accomplished is they have many of us working for them for free. Most anybody who develops content wants it indexed and distributed by Google. As the point Doc Searls (and others) makes in this post, maybe we all do write for Google whether that is our intention or not. As a benefit, Google gets to “re-sell” the location of that content with advertising revenue.

Google imbues its operating system with usefulness, entertainment and utility for the consumer: Desktop, Docs, Spreadsheets, Search, Calendars, Picasa, Maps, Earth, YouTube, Gmail, Groups, etc. In most cases what it provides is needed, wanted, helpful, free and almost universally available thanks to the increasing ubiquity of the Web. All this, in turn, creates what is an enormous and valuable contextual audience. It then sells that audience through buying and analysis tools such as AdWords, AdSense, Google Analytics and customized apps. In a marketing world that is increasingly searching for ways to rise above the clutter, reach a targeted audience and provide for accountability in the process, Google’s operating system presents a compelling option.

Yes, I would say the Eric Schmidt & Company are well on their way to creating the world’s foremost advertising operating system.